Scrotnig

Where Gary is concerned, yes it probably is.

Yes you are correct, Facebook and Twitter ARE what has killed forums, but a big part of that is over zealous moderation of the type seen on TAZ. People got fed up being told what they could and couldn't say, and being bombarded with adverts, spam threads and other monetisation, and Facebook offers an antidote to that, even their adverts are less intrusive than many forums.

Agreed. And the complete staff anonymity thing annoys people too. You can't get abused and insulted in deletion messages and you have no idea who it's from. I don't believe that's conducive to good manamgement of the site, or good practice being followed by staff. On any site I have been involved with, with the exception of spammers and deliberate mass troublemaking, I have always engaged with the person whose post I have moderated in whatever way. It always ends wth a good result.

You can get the technical side, but you always could. You can't get good advice on community management, managing member problems, delaying with issues, etc etc.

Yes but the stupid thing is, nobody's bothered to set up a competing site. TAZ just seems to be self destructing anyway. I don't get it.

TAZ was good back in the day. I've been a member since 2004. I can't pinpoint where it all started to go wrong, but I'd wager it was around the time XF was revealed and it became, effectively, a vBulletin hate site. Indeed, it arguably became an "anything that isn't xenForo" hate site around then. That has eased a bit, but not enough. It remains filled - and staffed - by too many xenforo salesmen.

None of those who tried did it properly. They were all variations on the same theme, populated by the same people, discussing the same subjects, and with the same censorship and management issues. Often the staff were even the same, and people cross posted the sameness topics to every site. The one that came closest was AdminAddict, run by someone called Nick. When the vB4 stuff all kicked off, it was being discussed in there, and one of vB's managers even posted there addressing concerns. But then Nick got complaints about all the arguments so he banned all discussion of it. Result - site dies, and he ended up selling it to AWS who merged it with whatever site he was running at the time. That's another failure of admin sites....being bought and then merged. Meaning your posts and username give the impression you joined a site you may never have joined. Forum owners underestimate just how much that really winds people up. It needs somebody with money, time, experience of forums, and some business acumen, to come in and do it properly. It would work and TAZ would either have to adapt or die.

I don't know what really goes on there. I have a feeling that you do, for obvious reasons, but we'll leave that for now. I just find it depressing that the one remaining general admin forum, potentially a brilliant resource for forum admins, got turned into such a toxic environment. I said years ago there was an opportunity for someone to come in and do the niche properly, but it never happened.

I think this shows rather nicely that sites like this do have a value. They aren't "hate sites" as many like to label them. (I had all this with my site, and still do at times). I made a fuss about that thread in TAZ and their response was to censor me. So I brought the issue here, where they cannot censor me, and suddenly the thread vanishes. The same happened with the staff member / software piracy thing. I wasn't involved in that, but TAZ refused to act until it spilled my onto over sites like this one, and then...hey presto! The internet has need of "uncensored spaces", much to the chagrin of those who seek to operate by censorship and the silencing of viewpoints they don't like. TAZ has every right to censor its own operations as it sees fit, of course, but it shouldn't be surprised if, when these decisions seem odd, they get questioned elswhere.

Makes no difference. My post should have been deleted with a message similar to this: "Thanks for pointing this out, however next time please could you use the report system? Thanks" What I actually got was this: "Next time use the report system" Rude, uncivil and indicative that they don't value my membership. Which I already knew of course. So I'm happy to oblige.

What value does this type of thread have to TAZ? SEO Audit for a website I thought TAZ was a site for forum admins. Not SEO spam/scam websites. When I tried to call this out I just got a rude deletion message and the thread remains in situ, so I can only draw the conclusion that TAZ now supports and condones these spam/scam threads.

Gary it's not about who we THINK 'Muppet' is...we KNOW, absolutely 100%, without a shadow of doubt, that Muppet is YOU. Do you honestly think anyone is fooled? Even OzzKent was only going along with it to humour you. Can't you see it? You're making a fool of yourself, with no good reason. Why not simply use your own account?

Stop it Gary...stop it...everyone knows it's you....stop it.....arrrgggh my head. [ATTACH=full]1858._xfImport[/ATTACH]

Wales should be demolished, and replaced by a car park for people visiting England.

That's Wales.

NB for Gary's benefit that was a joke. I don't have a wife.

I once went after someone's goat. Caught it too. The police were very understanding, and my wife is standing by me, etc.

Gary doesn't have any mobile phone at all. Let alone one that can access the Internet. Just watch him telling people with mobile browser problems to "press control and F5" for evidence.

The answer to that one is to give it to the mother. She then stands a high chance of rescuing her child. Thus both survive. The reverse scenario wouldn't work, the child is not likely to be able to rescue the mother. Only one survives, and the child then has no mother to look after it. Goes against human instinct though.

In an interview last year, I was asked how I'd feel about working with a wheelchair bound person sat next to me. I actually replied by saying I felt it was an odd question and they might as well have asked me how I would feel about working next to someone with ginger hair! Obviously the point I was trying to make was "why would it matter?" They followed that up with "what if they needed assistance with their work?". I replied that I would provide it, just as I would with any colleague who needed assistance with their work. They are looking for evidence that you would discrimate against such people, and it's important to make sure your answers make it clear that you wouldn't. Easy for me because in my case those answers are the true position.

One of our Members of Parliament has been suspended this week from his party over homophobic and misogynistic views he posted online over fifteen years ago. It does not go down well here.

When Gary does his racist/bigoted/homophobic crap, I am ashamed he is from the same country as me. Britain is generally very open and accepting to those of different races, sexual orientations and gender orientations. Gary only represents the usual small minority of idiots with outdated and unacceptable views. I have no problem wth most of his goofy stuff, but he genuinely angers me when he shows this side to his personality. He should at least have the good grace to keep it to himself. One thing he should watch for. Most job interviews in the UK now include questions designed to expose your true views on diversity. Of course, they are easy to spot if you need to, but Gary probably wouldn't spot them and would get caught out. Companies do not want bigots on the books. Mind you, Gary doesn't actually want a job in the first place so it's a moot point.

He had two real members, he has driven them both away, so he will now use sock puppets to try and convince everyone he still has members. Ludicrous.

I hadn't seen that...thanks Paul. I had only seen his homophobic remark posted on your own forum.

That is precisely why most of us will not waste our time joining there.